Unwanted
by wikelia
Summary: "No one helps you or feels sorry for you because you're not getting hurt, and if you say you are, you just get seen as weak." "Yeah - wow." He raised a brow. "That's pretty much on point, Mayfield." Oneshot.


There was a hard bump and suddenly Max Mayfield was lying on the floor in front of Steve Harrington.

They stared at each other blankly.

Max scowled.

That snapped him out of his surprised stupor. He held out a hand and she took it, getting up. "Sorry. Are you okay?"

"Fine." She crossed her arms and raised a brow at him. "What are you doing at the middle school?"

Steve scanned the area for Dustin as he told her he was here to pick the younger boy up. He was nowhere in sight, though, only kids who Steve didn't recognize bar Max, who was right in front of him.

"He's not here." When Steve looked at Max again, she had turned away. "The chief let El come outside to hang out with the boys and get ice cream. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas are with her. Will is at home."

"Not a fan of ice cream?"

"What?"

"Not a fan of ice cream?" he repeated, giving her a pointed look. "Why didn't you go?"

Max gave him a deadpan look as though he was stupid and dropped her skateboard to the ground before slowly skating away from him.

Steve really didn't see what was so obvious. He jogged next to her.

A small part of him, at least, should have been concerned that he was so intent on listening as to why some random middle school girl didn't go get ice cream with her friends (and one of them was her boyfriend now, wasn't he?). But it was a nice distraction from his own hellhole at high school where he was "old news" and the girl of his dreams was sitting with another guy, and they both wouldn't meet his eye.

"Hey, hey! Come on, I'm seriously asking. Why didn't you go?" Steve jogged next to her.

"How well do you know Mike, Dustin, and Lucas?" Max asked, with a steely gaze.

"Not very well. Maybe Dustin better than the other two. Why?"

"That explains why you're clueless." She stopped skating and stared at him. "They didn't want me there."

"What? Why not?" He didn't particularly see any reason for the boys and Eleven to not want Max to join them. The more the merrier, right?

She stopped at his car right when he did, picking up the skateboard and letting out a disgruntled sigh. "El doesn't like me. She glares at me every time she sees me. Mike didn't like me, either, and even though he was getting better about it, he doesn't argue with her. So that's already two of them. Lucas and Dustin wanted me there but when they suggested it, Mike threw them a really dirty look." Max grit her teeth. "I told them I had stuff to do anyway. No point getting in between the dream team, right?"

Ah, fuck. He didn't expect to replace his own teenage angst with someone else's. Plus it sucked to be pushed aside. He'd know.

"Any idea why Eleven hates you?" He sat down on the hood of his car.

"Not a one. Unless she thinks I'm replacing her." She looked down and snorted. "As though I could replace someone like her."

Steve searched his mind for anything to say. He had seen Eleven maybe twice, and he didn't know enough about her to assure Max that the other girl didn't hate her. Maybe she did. Who knew?

So instead he said, "Being the new kid sucks, huh?"

"Not for Billy," she said with a bitter look, "he's fine."

"He leaves you alone now, right?"

Finally, Max smiled, a small grin. "Yeah. Thanks to your bat."

They both let out weak chuckles, and then he motioned for her to join him on the hood of the car. Max looked doubtful at first, but relented, and soon they were both soaking up the sun right there.

"I don't know what it's like to be the new kid," Steve said quietly, looking at her, "but I guess I know what it's like to not be wanted."

Max gave him a curious look, and he sighed inwardly. So much for escaping the teenage angst. "You know Nancy, right? Yeah, she...she and I used to date. Then we had a fight, I...I guess we broke up sometime, and she moved on...really quickly."

He didn't want to be bitter. But it was coming out that way for sure.

"With Will's brother?" Max guessed.

"Yeah, with Jonathan." He placed his hands behind him and leaned back. "A year before all that, I dissed off my two best friends. I spent the year mostly clinging to Nance. Now that she can't even look me in the eye...and your brother is the new...king…" He cringed at the title; it sounded so pathetic. "I'm not bullied or some shit like that, but I don't have...you know…"

"Friends," Max murmured, as a statement and not a question. Had Steve been as perceptive as these kids in middle school? Why were kids so fucking smart these days? Damn nerds.

"Yeah."

"Not bullied, but not wanted. It's a stupid place to be, yeah?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it really is." She gazed at him. "No one helps you or feels sorry for you because you're not getting hurt, and if you say you are, you just get seen as weak."

"Yeah - wow." He raised a brow. "That's pretty much on point, Mayfield."

"It's Max," she said, with a small smile.

"Well, Max, I've got nowhere to be and no dreams to achieve," he claimed, making the younger girl laugh. "You wanna go...I don't know, bowling or something? See a movie?"

There was something odd about her expression and the way she was looking at him. "Why? I get that you don't have anyone to be with right now, but you've totally got better stuff to do than hang out with a middle schooler."

"Don't rub it in." He leaned over and ruffled her hair playfully. "Besides, you're not just a middle schooler. You're a middle schooler who drove a car and stabbed Billy Hargrove in the neck. Makes you pretty badass, doesn't it?"

Max's cheeks turned a little pink and she ducked her head, making Steve grin. Damn, if only he could be this good at cheering himself up. That would be fantastic.

"I mean...I guess," she mumbled, but he saw her smile.

"Good. Now…" He hopped off the hood. "Let's go catch that movie. Tickets are on me."

 ***whispers* I want to see Steve and Max develop a sister/brother relationship so bad if you couldn't tell by now.**

 **This has been in my docs for a while, figured I might as well post it.**


End file.
